Category: burials and cremation

‘Re St Peter Terwick [2017] ECC Chi 2 is a relatively straightforward case concerning the development of a churchyard through the re-use of land formerly used for burial. However, it is important since in addition to the Chancellor’s summary of the diminishing availability of space for burial, the judgment records “the exemplary manner in which the parish has set about converting its aspiration into reality”.’

‘The inquest into the death of the remaining “Moors Murderer”, Ian Brady, commenced on 16 May 2017, and the BBC reported that his ashes would not to be scattered at Saddleworth Moor, the burial place of many of their victims. Senior coroner Christopher Sumner is reported as saying that “he knew he did not have the legal power to make such a request but believed it was the ‘correct moral judgement’”.’

‘Bodies are being illegally shifted by councils to cover up burial errors, a Church of England court has heard.
A judge criticised councils who secretly correct their mistakes by “sliding” bodies across in the ground without lifting them out.’

‘A widely publicised family court ruling which had the effect of allowing the freezing of the body of a 14-year-old girl does not set any precedent about the rights and wrongs of cryopreservation, the judge in the case has suggested.’

‘The mother of a dying girl has been given the right to cryogenically freeze her daughter’s body after her death, in the hope that she will one day be resurrected and cured. What are the human rights implications?’

‘An 800-year-old dress code banning women from taking off their hats may finally be overturned later in Norfolk. But what other old-fashioned, or just plain strange, rules are in place around England?’